The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-10
Mr.. EDIsoN's EXPERIMENTS.
A Device for Transmitting Messages
at Sea.

A Philadelphia dispatch to the New York
Times says: A smooth faced, thick-set,
young looking man, attired in a gray suit
and accompanied by two handsome young
women, stepped briskly up to the desk at
the Continental Hotel office this afternoon
and registered in plain round back hand,
Thomas A. Edison, Orange, N. j.. The
young women were his wife and siSter-in-
law He appeared to be enjoying the best of
health, and said the stories about his being
at the point of death while in Florida were
without foundation. He said he had come
to Philadelphia to purchase electrical ap-
paratus for his new laboratory at Level
lyn, n. j. In speaking of the Florida trip,
he said he was well pleased with the climate
and that he had erected permanent labo-
ratory on the banks of the Caloosahatchie
river, where he will continue his expert
ments every winter One of his most inter
esting experiments was in submarine signal
ing, by which messages can be transmitted
from ship to ship by means of steam whistles
operated by keys in the same manner as
Geographic instruments. All his experiments
so far have been confined to the waters of
the Caloosahatchie, where he has succeeded
in conveying Ineligible messages distance
of one mile.
The principle on which he will endeavor
to perfect his experiment is the remarkable
facility afforded by water for transmitting
sound. Divers in the ocean have heard the
swish of steamers wheels fifteen miles
away, and Mr.. Edison think3he can trans
NIT his message from ship to ship distance
of at least seven miles, What he purposes
doing after he has perfected his apparatus
is to have the large ocean steamers equipped
with the steam whistles and transmitters
Under the water line of each steamer will be
a sounder, connected with the captains
cabin by thin transmitting wire running
through "a tube. When the captain of one
vessel wants to signal another, he will sit
down to his keyboard, turn the steam on
his whistle, manipulate the keys, and send
the message out into the waves that break
against the sounder. This sound will
pass unbroken from wave to wave
with remarkable velocity, until it runs
UP against the sounder of some
vessel OF vessels which may happen to be
within reach of the volume of sound. As
SOON as the wave containing the sound
strikes the sounder on the hull of the vessel
or vessels within reach, the message will
run over the electrical wire to the Captains
cabin, where it will ring an electrical bell.
An attendant will then take down the mes
sage as it comes from the water, by means
of Geographic keys, as comfortably and
correctly as though he were sitting in one
of Jay Gould's Western Union Telegraph
offices receiving news about one of Jay
Gould's big deals.
After the message has been received the
Captain can swing his vessel around, and
continue the message through seven miles
of water in the same direction, until it
strikes another steamer when the opera
ton may be repeated until the whole
breadth of the ocean has been crossed 1t
will also be useful as means of signaling
by vessel in distress.